In the beginning most pickup trucks had a forward cab, which had a rear wall that was closely adjacent to a bench-type seat. As pickup trucks became increasingly popular, a new type of vehicle was developed having an extended cab to provide space rearward of the front bench seat. This space can be utilized for smaller passengers or for an enclosed cargo area. With the development of extended cab pickup trucks, there has come forth a desire for both front and rear side doors to the cab area.
The rear door, often referred to as the access door, like most vehicle doors is primarily formed from stamped sheet metal pieces which are welded together to form a spaced envelope therebetween. The rear door in the extended cab pickup truck is narrower than the front door. Accordingly the window opening on the rear door tends to be narrower.
The rear door typically has two release handles. One handle is located on the interior of the access door, while the other release handle is typically placed on an exterior panel or shut face of the access door that faces an abutting shut face of the front door.
The interior handle is pivotably mounted to a latch release mechanism which is mounted to the interior panel. A large portion of the release mechanism protrudes into an interior of door within the spaced envelope between the interior panel and the outer panel. This protrusion into the spaced envelope prevents the utilization of a moveable window for the door due to clearance issues for the window glass and window regulator. Accordingly most rear doors on extended cab type pickup trucks are either fixed or can only partially open or are made very narrow.
The above noted clearance problem is even more pronounced on an insert type door versus a limousine type door. In a limousine type door the spaced enveloped is typically wider in the vehicle transverse direction. In an insert type door the spaced envelope is typically narrower in the vehicle transverse direction.
It is desirable to provide a pickup truck type vehicle with a rear access door with a wide window opening with a fully opening window. It is additionally desirable to provide a vehicle as described above wherein the rear access door has only one release handle to open the access door either from the interior or from the exterior of the vehicle. It is also desirable to provide such an aforedescribed vehicle wherein the handle can be pulled inward to release the access door or wherein the handle can be pulled outward to release the access door.